Reality Check, Please!
While I was reading The Food Network Magazine, I found a tid-bit I wanted to share with you all.
Restaurant Menus
are designed to make you eat more and spend big.
Try some of these sneaky tips next time you dine out.
Missing dollar signs
The dollar symbol is missing next to the process for a reason: That one little character ($) reminds you that you’re spending money. When Restaurants in one 2008 Cornell University study left dollar signs off the menu, the average check went up $5.55.
Staggered Prices
Menus typically show prices right after dish descriptions rather than in a column. Why? So you won’t go looking for a cheaper dish. If you see a chicken entree for $17, the restaurant doesn’t want you to notice that the chicken tenders two lines down up are $3 cheaper. Kevin Moll, CEO of Denver’s National Restaurant Consultants, says staggering the prices on a menu leads to a 10-percent increase in sales.
High-profit zones
If you’ve ever memorized a vocabulary list, you know the first and last words are the easiest to remember. The same goes for menus, so restaurants often put the highest- profit items at the top and bottom of each section- and those dishes sell 25 percent better than the ones in the middle. Regardless of price, they probably aren’t the best value.
Bold Type
Bold typefaces are instant attention grabbers designed to lure you to big-ticket items, says Dave Pavesic, professor of hospitaity management at Georgia State University. He says that this tactic increases sales up to 10 percent.
Tempting descriptions
Elaborate descriptions, particularly those that trigger nostalgia, can boost sales by 27 percent, according to Cornell University researchers.
by Beth Shapouri
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11 Comments:
Interesting-- I will make an effort to find the middleground of the menu...
But as for the decorative swirls and colors, I will probably continue to be entranced...
healthygirl78 at 9:34PM on 03/10/09
Good post...thx
Ribster at 9:49PM on 03/10/09
I designed the current menu at my favorite restaurant, the Frog Leg Inn in Erie, Michigan.
1) Dollar signs - It has them. Looks good.
2) I lined up the prices with the titles on purpose as it looked better that way.
3) Pricing - I did each section in descending order by price because that's how Chef wants it.
4) Bold type - The hostess is from France and keeps the dining room incredibly dim. I couldn't read the original type myself in those rooms, so it's either big or bold.
5) Descriptions - Well, too bad. Either that or I put in a foofy food porn pic. Yeah, we wanna make you drool. You wanna drool. So what?
Guess we don't know what we're doing ... ;-)
LunaPierCook at 4:30AM on 03/11/09
It isn't as if these things are deceiving you if you just read the menu. People who don't pay attention to price or read the whole menu are at fault.
brittj8585 at 5:18AM on 03/11/09
I call it Marketing 101. Sneaky tips? Absolutely not. There is nothing deceptive about opportunistic placement of words and use of bold fonts.
smallkitchen at 7:16AM on 03/11/09
Just so long as they use a font size I can read in the dark at their table. And stay away from the cursive, swirly fonts. They probably look great under the glare of a marketing idiot's desk lamp, but they are impossible to make out by the flickering candlelight in the client's dining room.
I have pretty much quit on night-time dining at a couple of otherwise good local restaurants because of this issue. And I am a younger person who does not need glasses.
Remander at 8:57AM on 03/11/09
@brittj8585 asking people to take responsibility for reading a menu and not being confused...surely you jest! ; )
Restaurants are businesses. The owners and employees want to make money. If they try to edge you in a direction to improve profits well...this is what a business does. If you don't understand something then ask. Menus are not rocket science (groan if you like I totally deserve it.) Just take the time to read it and absorb the direction it is trying to take you. As to dimly lit restaurants, I once asked a waiter for his lighter so I could see the menu, he brought another candle instead. The next time we went, about 2 months later, the restaurant was significantly brighter. Guess I wasn't the only one with that problem.
finsbigfan at 9:42AM on 03/11/09
Beyond marketing 101, typography and design have a lot to do with emotion and our expectations of a product. I appreciate clearly written, well-designed menus that keep the diner in mind (large print in a dark restaurant is helpful for everyone). That being said, I don't get too excited about a restaurant whose menu is in Times New Roman, and out of respect for my design-loving self, I probably wouldn't consider eating at a place that uses Comic Sans.
Also, even pricing ($17, $30, etc., as opposed to $11.99) creates the illusion of quality. I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned, but I have noticed the absence of dollar signs.
pearl at 1:00PM on 03/11/09
Ditto @smallkitchen! It still surprises me when an intelligent, sophisticated dining companion doesn't know that menus are engineered for profits, not just a way to tell diners what is available. I guess all that stuff is so ingrained in me from the Cornell Hotel School, I forget other people don't know!
Embackus at 4:17PM on 03/11/09
Come on guys! Face it, we know what food we like, are in the mood for, or what sounds fantastic at the time. I'm completely unaffected by the positioning of food on a menu, or the typeface of the food on aforementioned menu. I tend to go for the chefs or blackboard specials myself. There's also the conversation with your server, they'll tell you what not to order in most instances, and recommend what is going to get them a nice tip at the end of your meal!
donnie at 8:21PM on 03/11/09
I don't want to offend because that is not my purpose. I am not a chef...nor am I a culinary expert. I appreciate posts like this. Thank you for letting those of us who aren't experts in on your tips (0= I am just a regular person who happens to love and prepare great food!
foodiegal at 12:58AM on 03/12/09